RACINE, Wis. — An effort is underway to turn parts of Cliffside Park in Racine County back into a wetland.

What You Need To Know

  • Cliffside Park began as a wetland, then it became farmland and now it’s being restored to its original purpose

  • The goal is to transform the area into a prairie to reduce soil erosion into Lake Michigan

  • This is a part of the Wind Point Watershed Restoration plan

The area began as a wetland, then it became farmland, and now it’s being restored to its original purpose.

Sean Masterson is a restoration operator with Resource Environmental Solutions (RES). He is a part of a team that spreads seeds across the recently rebuilt wetland.

“We are trying to get the native plant to take up and establish in this new area that we made,” said Masterson.

The goal is to transform the area into a prairie. Masterson said it will reduce soil erosion into Lake Michigan.

“It shouldn’t erode too much down there now,” said Masterson. “It also filters a lot of the silt and sediment because we had diverted it for so long, so it should catch a lot of that. It also creates a migratory habitat for birds and other animals with these ponds.”

Dave Giordano is the executive director of the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network. He said this is a part of the Wind Point Watershed Restoration plan.

Giordano also said that Southeastern Wisconsin lost a majority of its wetland to settlements. This former farmland was one of the few areas that could be restored.

“A lot of the farm was for hops and barley that was used to make beer in Milwaukee, so it has an interesting history,” said Giordano. “This project undoes the agricultural impacts to this land and brings it back to what was more similar before settlement.”

The Racine County government helped fund some of this wetland work. For County Executive Jonathan Delagrave, it was an easy decision to make.

“This will be a place where people outside of Racine County will want to be,” said Delagrave. “It’s going to be a gorgeous park to hike and walk through and see this natural habitat come back to life, but also quality of life means so much for me, and we hear that from our Racine County residents and this checks that box.”

Masterson said he is glad to play a role in the area’s transformation.

“It’s just nice to see when I showed up that it obviously didn’t look at all like this and now, I got to have my hand in making this look how it is,” said Masterson. “I appreciate what I see here, so it’s nice to see others getting a look at it too.”

Masterson and others involved in the project believe once it is done, it will just attract wildlife. They said it will also increase water quality and reduce flooding.